Have you seen the AfC "Christmas Tree" (as if anything could be less filled with the spirit of Xmas than AfC)? It shows the different pay bands and the bigger the branch on the tree, the more staff on that band. Biggest branches are 3/4 and 6. 3/4 are all the staff like you and nurses and administrators and people who generaly lost out under AfC ("points mean prizes" but we won't tell you how to score the points (a bit like playing darts in the dark)). 6 is junior/middle management. Band 5 is really tiny, mostly because people who should have been band 5 in terms of what they were getting paid have been a) downgraded if staff or b) upgraded to 6 if management. If if makes you any happier (altho I doubt it) I'm on band 6 and still can't afford a mortgage.